Ein paar Sachen

Meat

When I was little, or when I was still in my hometown, I didn’t eat meat. I avoided eating any kinds of meat every time I was hungry. Beef, lamb, chicken and duck weren’t on my menu at all. It was not because of religious reason, but because I didn’t like the smell and the taste. It’s always so difficult to chew and I always felt nauseated.

My parents were the only two people in my life who could understand me, but my siblings, my friends and some other people always ridiculed me. How can a person not like meat? It’s an expensive food and everybody likes it. Apparently, not everybody likes it. I didn’t, because of the reasons mentioned above.

In the States, I thought that the ridicule of not eating meat would stop. I kept on asking myself if there were people who could understand me. Yes, vegetarians, but I’m not really a vegetarian. Well, at least I didn’t eat meat.

Anyway, I got tired of the ridicule and I couldn’t be myself. I started eating meat about five years ago to make people happy, although I didn’t like it. Somehow, it was different. Well, ground beef is a different story. It’s not difficult to chew, but I still felt nauseated. I kept on thinking that I was eating the animal alive, “I’m eating a living being.” It disgusted me and I just…my stomach couldn’t stand the thought. I was always almost vomited. And…no more story. The sad thing about it is I like meat now. Sometimes I miss my friend’s cooking, because he cooked the meat really well and I just loved the taste. Yet, the thought…Forget it!

So, I bought some meat, unground beef, and wanted to make some dish for lunch. Apparently, my past experience, you know, the thought of eating a living being, the nausea and the stiffness, made me think, “I don’t want to eat meat again.” Well, I just don’t know how to cook meat. It was my first experience and I need to ask my Mom.

Language

I have been asked, why I don’t write in another language, like German, French or my native language. I could write in German, but it will be grammatically incorrect. I’m still learning German, and, although I can speak it, written language is always different. As a linguist, I know that. It’s not just translating from one language to another, but writing is not translating. It’s expressing our ideas and thoughts and perspectives. If we translate it, it won’t make sense. The sentence may be meaningless, because there are a few things that cannot be expressed in the target language.

Language, by the way, when translated is restricted only by idioms. For example, we can translate an expression like, “Natalie says, she loves me” to German, but we cannot just translate an expression like, “It’s been raining like cats and dogs” to German. And people ask me if there’s such expression in my native language. We don’t have an idiom for “raining like cats and dogs.”

I guess, for that reason, I don’t write anything in German. Besides, I am used to thinking in English, even when I talk to myself. I just feel awkward to talk to myself in my language, except when numbers are involved. That one has to be a little specific.

Ghost

Do you believe in ghost? I do. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I believe in the unseen. It’s not really like asking, do you believe in God? It’s a different kind of question, but the thing is, we can’t see either one, but I believe in God because I think and I exist. I mean, we just have to believe in things that we can’t see. How about soul? What is a soul? Can we see it?

Merriam Webster defines “ghost” as a disembodied soul; especially: the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness. So, is our soul the ghost itself? I don’t buy that. Merriam Webster says that soul is the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life. In that case, “ghost” is not equal to “soul.”

Okay. I guess the difference is whether we are alive or not. Before we die, our soul is still attached to our body, but after we die, the soul becomes a ghost, because it’s disembodied. So, what happens after that is that we become a ghost and we live in the unseen world. What is the unseen world? And, what happens in the unseen world? Is there some sort of like description whether we go to Heaven or Hell? If not, wow, life is a waste! Why do we live at all, because after we die, we’re all going to turn into a ghost. I can’t buy Merriam Webster’s description of “ghost” and “soul.”

Asian Invasion

For some reason, there seems to be more Asians who live in Salzburg now. I didn’t see a lot of them last year, and when did this influx start?

I’m not against or anti-Asian, but there are so many of them around Salzburg. I’m not talking about the tourists, but the residents (Duh! I said that already. Why do we like to repeat things?).

I wonder what Europe would be like in…twenty-five years? German, French, English, Italian and Spanish would probably be “dead” languages, because this “invasion” has brought a new dimension of culture, in terms of language, although the lifestyle and the customs are pretty much European. Is it likely to happen?

Anyhow, in my DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) class, we had a discussion that Europeans, we mean, real Europeans, are not “producing” babies anymore, because the standard of living is getting higher every year, and, besides, most of them want to enjoy life, like go on vacation to Asia, Africa, the US or other parts of Europe. So, if they have to postpone their trip before they get “older” (By postpone I mean that children will hamper their plans), they won’t end up in going to those “exotic” lands and won’t enjoy life before they die. In that case, why not save money before they have kids so when the saving is enough, they can have a two-week vacation so they can enjoy life?

But I really wonder if that is really the main reason why the locals, I mean Europeans, didn’t want to have children. If enjoying life while they still can is pretty much the lifestyle, why was Rome built for more than a day? (Do you see what I mean?). The European civilization, since its early years, has pretty much shaped the world civilization and it’s pretty much depends on the readers’ opinion whether to see the word “civilization” from the negative or the positive context. So, if the “civilization” has to end in the hands of the foreigners, why did “they” build Rome in the first place? (By Rome, I mean the whole Europe).

Or, is the answer simply: We, Europeans, want to retire, so, we’re going to give up our lands to you Asians (Side note: Can you share with me?). If that’s really the case, I can’t give comments, because, if Asians are to be the next Europeans, I will sowieso be part of Europe, right?

English is Tough Stuff

By Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!

Fixin’ to: the History and its Meaning

The Southern Dialect, spoken throughout the southern part of the United States, has its uniqueness and characteristics because it differs in pronunciations and vocabularies from common American English. Some words, such as over yonder for ‘over there’ and reckon for ‘think’ or ’suppose,’ are considered archaic by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary; however, these words have a special place in Southern American English. In addition, there are also a number of phrases and idioms that are common in the area, such as fixin’ to that is used to indicate an immediate future action (Southern American English).

According to Random House, the phrase fixin’ to is originally used mostly in the South Atlantic and Gulf States in the 1930s. However, the verb fix itself, meaning to get ready or to prepare, was first used in the early eighteenth century in America (“Fixing”). According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, there are seven meanings of the transitive verb fix. One of them means to get ready or prepare, as in “Mom is fixing lunch for everyone.” Intransitively, the verb fix means to get set or be on the verge as in “John is fixing to meet his boss soon” (“Fix”). From the examples above, Random House notes that the meaning of the phrase can be extended to ‘to be about to’ or ‘to plan (to) imminently’ (“Fixing”). Nonetheless, the latter shows an action that may not involve any preparation, as in, “I’m fixin’ to feed the chicken.” Thus, from both meanings, the phrase shows an action that will happen immediately.

In conclusion, the phrase fixin’ to shows two kinds of actions that are happening in the immediate future. The first action involves planning, which means ‘to plan (to) imminently,’ while the second one does not, meaning ‘to be about to.’ Despite the meaning, the progressive tense followed by the infinitive always indicates an immediate future action, as in “My mother is coming to visit next week.” Therefore, it is obvious that the phrase fixin’ to is closely related to the progressive form ‘is coming to.’ Yet, fixin’ to seems to convey the meaning that someone is preparing to do something in the future.